By Carole Dennett
A dilapidated Shanklin hotel branded “a tragedy waiting to happen” by staff, is being run by the owner of the New County Hotel in Perth, where three people and a dog perished in a fierce fire on Monday (Jan 6).
The management is not the only thing the two hotels share; the authorities were apparently aware of serious safety issues at both hotels. According to Scottish newspaper, the Courier, 21 fire safety improvements were ordered by the Scottish Fire and Safety Service at the New County Hotel in Perth. The Fire Safety Audit, carried out three weeks before the fatal blaze, gave the owners 28 days to complete the work.
The Melbourne Ardenlea Hotel in Queen’s Road, Shanklin, was closed by the Isle of Wight Council in July 2021, when prohibition notices were issued in respect of the gas and electricity supplies. Official papers said it was due to the risk of “serious personal injury with the danger of fire, explosion, gas leaks and carbon monoxide”. Although certificates were subsequently produced for the gas and electrical works before the hotel reopened several weeks later, it appears that not all the work listed in a Fire Safety Audit was carried out before the hotel reopened, and according to more than one former staff member, has still not been done.
What are the problems?
One former employee said: “The hotel is a tragedy waiting to happen. There was never any money available to pay for safety work and the owners owed money all over the place so nobody would do any work there anyway. That fire could easily have been in Shanklin. The owners tried to put the responsibility on the staff.
“Environmental Health seemed satisfied with the electricity and gas works and showed no interest, but it was a deathtrap”.
“The authorities seemed not to be worried, no matter what the problems were. Several of us tried to whistleblow, but nothing ever came of it.”
The Melbourne Ardenlea closed abruptly again on Monday, after the news broke about the Perth fire, with a sign on the door saying it was due to maintenance
The IW Observer reported on the state of the hotel in August 2021, after an experienced manager quit after just two days, due to “filth, squalor and casual attitude to guest safety”. We have since visited the hotel several times in response to staff or guest concerns and seen what appear to be fire safety hazards, including water leaking onto a live electric socket and bare wires on heater plugs in public corridors.
Staff say they tried to whistleblow anonymously about the issues, sending a number of emails to the Environmental Health (EH) department and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Service (H&IWFS) with detailed information and photographs. One long-standing former member of staff, who left several months ago, claims no effective action was taken by EH and no visits were made during the whole of 2022 from H&IWFS.
Fire safety issues complained of include a defective fire alarm, out-of-date fire extinguishers, and safety tests on electrical equipment, fire doors obstructed or locked. Health and safety issues included rodents in the kitchens, damp and mould, falling ceilings with filth and rubbish accumulated in many areas of the hotel and grounds. They also claimed no insurance has been in place since mid-December.
Who runs the hotel?
John Horvath, of Parker Hospitality Ltd, who previously ran the hotel, claimed yesterday that the hotel was being run by the owner, Rashid Hussein, through another company, but didn’t know which one and couldn’t say when the change had occurred. Yesterday, details about Parker Hospitality were updated on the Companies House website, with both Mr Horvath and Mr Hussein severing their links with the company. Although the changes were filed on Wednesday, two days after the fire, they are both backdated, in Mr Hussein’s case to last June.
Mr Hussein has a large and complex network of companies, including M R H Real Estate Ltd, through which he is believed to own the freehold of both the Melbourne Ardenlea and New County Hotels.
Mr Horvath told us that when he was running the hotel everything was in order and all the work needed was carried out except for a few “small issues” with fire doors, although he wasn’t sure whether insurance was in place. When asked about the leak onto the electricity socket, which was clearly long-standing, he told us it had been repaired, and he wasn’t responsible for it leaking again and that the electricity supply to the unsafe heaters had been switched off, conflicting with what we had been told by staff.
What does the Isle of Wight Council say?
The hotel has received multiple poor reviews on Trip Advisor and other similar sites but was used by the Isle of Wight Council to house homeless people last year. The closure of the hotel on Monday left several people homeless, with some apparently rehoused by the council in B&B accommodation. A spokesman said: “Over the Christmas period, the council received complaints about the hotel, which we are investigating. The council provide a personalised response to all households that find themselves with no safe place to call home in line with the legislation. We are unable to comment on individual cases. The IWC have not accommodated any household in this hotel for a significant period of time.”
H&IWFS said they would be unable to comment before we went to press, as we only received evidence about the allegations yesterday afternoon.
We tried to speak to Mr Hussein, the owner and apparently the manager of the hotel, but he texted us to say that he was unavailable to talk to us until today (Friday).
Pick up next week’s IW Observer to find out what more information we’ve been able to uncover.